My Little Victory
by Elise Sawyer
Summary: The staff of Sacred Heart struggles to cope with the departure of a coworker they never thought they would miss.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone. Just thought I'd let you know, I'm still working on my other story, My Hug, but it's taking me a lot longer than I thought it would. There's a lot of research involved in that one. But I appreciate the reviews and the nice comments so far :) So, feel free to keep them coming, on the chapters already up and on this story as well ;) So in the meantime I thought I'd post this one up. I might end up finishing this one first anyway, since there's less research involved. Ok, so this one is told from J.D's perspective this time, but it will change location from time to time, you know, like it does on Scrubs :) Thoughts are in italics. Is there anything else I'm forgetting? I hope not. On with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!**

It was the beginning of a new day at Sacred Heart, and J.D was striding confidently down the halls of the hospital while simultaneously taking in the sights and sounds that surrounded him. He then sank into deep thought.

_Every place you go, whether it's where you work or where you just spend most of your time, has its regular characters. Each person contributes their own special something to your day. Like Ted lamenting over the untimely loss of his hair._

"Aww, the treatments I use never work! If only I had hair…" Ted said as he stood pathetically in the hallway gently rubbing his sweaty bald scalp. "Then maybe I could get a date with somebody under the age of 85…"

"Poor Ted," said J.D to himself, more out of habit than out of sympathy. His inner monologue raged on as he continued to walk down the hall.

_Or the Todd finding new ways to high-five someone. _J.D then observed Todd pounding fists with a new intern.

"Fist five! Alright!" he heard Todd say as he gave the customary snap of his fingers and walked off knowing he found yet another way to annoy the people around him. J.D continued with his train of thought.

…_Or the Janitor plotting new and imaginative ways to make my life miserable…_

"Morning, Janitor," J.D said casually as he walked passed the tall figure mopping a floor that looked like it was long overdue for a good cleansing. And yet somehow he looked different today. New haircut, maybe? He had his back turned toward J.D, which prevented him from pinpointing exactly what it was that made the Janitor seem a bit off today. Then the answer hit him square in the face as soon as he heard the man speak.

"Morning," he said back in an oddly friendly tone. His voice sounded quite chipper, as a matter of fact.

"Wait a second," said J.D as he stopped, took a few steps backward and did a double take. "You're not the Janitor!"

"Uh, yes, I am," said the man, who turned towards J.D and blinked at him as if he thought J.D was nuts. He then pointed to a tag on the front of his uniform that read 'Janitor'.

"Oh, no, see that's not what I meant," J.D stammered as he struggled to find a way to explain this to an outsider. "I mean, I know you're _a_ janitor, but I was actually talking about someone else…who's also a janitor…" J.D trailed off, for he was at a loss of what to say next. The new, eerily familiar-looking janitor continued to stare at him, trying to get a coherent answer out of J.D but couldn't drag one out of him. J.D then tried to explain it again. "There's this other Janitor that works here, you see. He's sort of considered, well; let's just say that when someone says "The Janitor" everyone knows who they're talking about. I've known him for seven years or so now, pretty much ever since I started working here.

"Ah," said New Janitor. "Well, I was just hired yesterday, and I'm the new head janitor. Dr. Kelso, the man who hired me said that the old one was leaving soon.

J.D couldn't believe what he was hearing. _The Janitor? Leaving?! _This was too good to be true! Still, he wanted to make sure of this before he unnecessarily embarrassed himself by doing a victory dance down the hallway and caused some sort of accident due to his clumsiness. No, if he was going to knock over any shelves today, it was going to be for a good reason.

"Are you sure the Janitor's leaving?"

"Well, yeah I'm pretty sure. Of course, there is more than one janitor in this place, you know. The words 'The Janitor' could describe a lot of people. I could probably find out which one it was. What was his name?"

J.D then gave him a dumbfounded look. "Uh…"

New Janitor stared at J.D in disbelief. "You…don't know?"

J.D shook his head reluctantly. "No, I don't," he said in an embarrassed tone.

"So you've known this guy for seven years, and you didn't even bother to ask for his NAME? Wow. I mean, I knew that maintenance workers never got much respect, but really! We do have names, you know!"

"Yeah, I know," said J.D sheepishly. J.D then decided to take the high road and try to make things right with this guy. If the Janitor he knew really was leaving, he didn't want to repeat the relationship he had with him with the new one. "Look, you're new. You're hearing this for the first time from an outside perspective. If you knew him first hand, you'd understand what I'm talking about. The Janitor never gave out his name, to anyone. Not even to the people he trusted, and there weren't very many of them. Still, I never thought I'd see the day when he finally left. He's been a prominent part of my time spent here, after all."

The new janitor gave a comprehending look and said, "Ok then. That makes some sense, I guess." J.D gave a sigh of relief at his reaction. It was then that he decided to extend a hand of friendship to the new maintenance worker.

"Right, well my name's J.D. I'm an attending here, so if there's anything you need, I'm on it."

The new janitor smiled at this warm welcome. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Well, I have to go. I've already been getting complaints about a broken door. Every fifth time or so it doesn't open."

It was at this point that J.D decided that for better or worse, he was going to press his luck. "Maybe there's a penny stuck in there," he said tentatively, waiting nervously for the reaction.

The new janitor nodded slightly, said, "Maybe," and walked away while pausing to call "Thanks, J.D," over his shoulder. J.D couldn't believe his good luck. As a result he began skipping merrily down the hall, humming to himself.

_The Janitor is leaving and his replacement is polite and…sane! This is going to be awesome! Nothing, but NOTHING can ruin this day…_

**That's it for now. I hope you like it so far :) Please review/comment! I'm still pretty new at this and want to know if I should keep at it or if I'm putting everyone to sleep! See you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! Chapter two is finally up! Sorry it took so long. I was so pleased with all the positive feedback I got from the first chapter. I really love reviews, they encourage me to keep writing once I know people actually like my work :) Anyway, here's chapter two! I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

_It had only been three days since I first encountered the Janitor's replacement, and word of his departure was already beginning to spread. I also found out a great deal about his successor. Coincidentally, the new janitor looked very much like the old one. He was comparable in height and body structure, and it would be easy for anyone to confuse the two from behind. There were some crucial differences though. For one thing, the new janitor was very different from the old one when it came to personality. The new janitor seems honest, polite and respectful. There are no plots or agendas against anyone in the hospital. He also doesn't have the presence the Janitor did. He may look just like him, but he doesn't instill any fear. Aside from the fact that he's a giant, he's almost inconspicuous. Plus, there's one other thing he has that the Janitor doesn't have…_

J.D paused his inner monologue momentarily to greet the new Janitor.

"Morning, Mark!" J.D said as he passed the new Janitor, who was cleaning up a particularly stubborn stain off the wall.

"Morning, J.D! Good to see you!"

"Good to see you, too! You don't know how good!" J.D shouted. He then picked up his train of thought right where he left off.

_Yep, Mark the janitor was certainly more personable than the Janitor I had come to know for seven years. He was polite, helpful, and best of all he didn't torture me! But not everybody felt the way I did about the Janitor's departure. It had only been a few days and it was coming up in conversation more and more often. _

J.D walked casually over to the nurse's station where he saw Carla, Turk and Elliot avidly engaged in discussion. "What's goin' on, guys?" he asked.

Elliot let out a pathetic whine and frowned slightly. "I can't believe the Janitor's leaving!"

"I know, isn't it great?!" Turk said, grinning a little. Elliot and Carla turned to him and gave him a death glare. Turk looked taken aback at this reaction. "Aww come on! Do you even know who we're talking about here? The Janitor has put us through so much crap over the years! It's good to finally get him off our backs."

"Amen, playa!" J.D exclaimed as he and Turk high-fived each other. "It's going to be so cool having him gone. No more stalking, no more harassing, no more torture…"

"No more giving out my number to hypochondriacs!" squealed Turk.

"No more duck taping me to the ceiling!" said J.D, grinning.

"No more skulking around the hospital!"

"No more ambushes!"

"Not more death glares!"

"And no more turning me into a makeshift American flag!" J.D gave a wide grin, and then immediately gave Turk an annoyed look. "You actually helped him with that one!"

"I was mad at you at the time, ok?"

"Oh like that makes a difference!"

"Boys, BOYS!" Carla yelled as she directed their attention back towards Elliot, who gave them a scoff and stuck her hands on her hips in disgust. "I can't believe you guys! How can you bring all that crap up after all the good things he's done for everyone?"

"What are you talking about, Elliot?" asked Turk. "All he's done for seven years is lie, manipulate, and torture everyone who works here! Because of him, the bathrooms are filthy, there are wet floors just begging to be slipped on, and you never know when you're going to get duck taped to the wall and have muffins thrown at your face!"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" shrieked Elliot in a pitch so high it made J.D and Turk's ears ring in pain. Carla decided to step in.

"Elliot's right. Look, I know he's a little weird, but the Janitor has done so much around here that we probably aren't even aware of! Can you imagine what it would be like if he were to suddenly disappear?

At this point J.D tilted his head to the side and began to imagine life without the Janitor.

J.D was walking down a perfectly clean, almost abnormally so, hallway. Everything was still and silent, so much so that it gave J.D chills as he wondered what sort of torture and mutilation he would meet at the end of it. He watched a tumbleweed bounce by as he began to walk briskly toward it's exit point, and when he got there, he realized that it was pure bliss to simply walk down a hallway and not meet his imminent doom, or have to fear for his safety, every time he did so.

"J.D?"

Turk, Carla, and Elliot watched him as he gently shook his head and came back to reality.

"It would be wonderful!" he exclaimed, perhaps a little too excitedly. "Oh I hope he's leaving soon, like, oh I don't know…tomorrow maybe." He and Turk screamed excitedly as they bounced up and down and gave each other a celebratory jump-hug. Carla and Elliot just stared at them in disgust.

"Don't get too excited," warned Carla sternly. "He probably just gave advanced notice of his departure. There's a good chance he won't be leaving for a couple of weeks.

"WEEKS?" J.D and Turk's expressions suddenly saddened and they began to pout as this sudden realization hit them with full force.

"Damn it. Has anyone even seen him around anymore?" asked J.D.

"Oh he's still here, but he's keeping his distance," said Elliot with a little bit of a frown. "He's barely speaking to anyone, even his own Brain Trust. He's not saying a whole lot about why he's leaving at all, so asking him won't really tell us much."

"And why does it matter WHY he's leaving?" asked Turk.

"Well don't you want to know?" asked Elliot, eyes widened and mouth agape. "Aren't you at least a little curious as to why the man who supposedly "tortured" you guys since we've been here is finally calling it quits?"

"Nope!" said Turk, perhaps a little too quickly. "J.D, are you curious?" he asked, expecting the same answer, but the truth was that deep down, J.D wanted to know just as much as Elliot did. Instead, however, he gave a reluctant "Nah," as a response.

"Yeah well, I'm going to find out!" sniffed Elliot as she stormed off in a mixture of disgust and hurt. Not wanting to turn this situation into something bigger than necessary, J.D grudgingly followed her.

"Elliot, wait!" he quickened his pace to catch her and she turned to face him, that same look of surprise and loathing still perched firmly in her eyes. "What," she spat firmly.

"Look, I didn't want to say this in front of Turk, but I'm curious too. The Janitor might've hated me for no reason at all, but I'd kind of like to know what in the world could possibly make that scary giant want to suddenly up and quit."

Elliot's face softened at this admission. "Alright," she said kindly. "Want to come with me to Kelso's office? If anyone's going to know anything about this, it'll probably be him, since he's hardly speaking to anyone else." J.D nodded, and the two were off trying to solve perhaps one of the greatest mysteries the hospital had seen since the amazingly orange man they had encountered a year ago. But even that couldn't compare to this. The Janitor was the most enigmatic character J.D had ever encountered during his time working at the hospital. Figuring out why he might be leaving was not going to be an easy task, and he knew it. Still, it would be best to start at the source, and since he and Elliot both knew they wouldn't be able to get anything out of the Janitor himself, they headed towards Kelso's office with uncertainty about what they might find.

Elliot knocked on the door with hesitation as she and J.D opened it and entered the room to find Dr. Kelso sitting at his desk eating a muffin. "What do you want?" He barked.

Elliot and J.D made their way slowly over to his desk and down in two chairs facing him. Since Elliot was the one pressing the issue, it was she who spoke first.

"Dr. Kelso, we've heard some…rumors lately that the Janitor is leaving. Is this true?"

"Ah yes, it is true. Ol' Jumpsuit came in here last week. He told me he would be leaving Sacred Heart for good soon. He was very quiet about it. Didn't say much else."

"So…he didn't say why?" J.D inquired.

"No, he didn't. But even if he did I would have told him to shut the hell up. Do you people think I actually give a shit about your personal lives? I don't even give a crap about your professional ones! And why the hell do you care about what happens to him, anyway? He's been nothing but a pain in the ass for years now. Now get out of my sight." He waved them away as he took another generous bite out of his muffin, and J.D and Elliot sauntered out begrudgingly. But when they got back into the hall, they found that they had not gone unheard. Ted stood before them looking sweaty and nervous as usual, but he eyed them with a look of urgency.

"Were you just asking about the Janitor?"

"Yeah," J.D answered. "Do you know anything?"

Ted rubbed the top of his head nervously. "I don't know a whole lot. He wouldn't tell us much. Only that he'll be leaving the hospital for good two weeks from today. He'll still be around until then, but he'll be working less and less."

"And he didn't say why?"

"He was sort of vague about that. He said he wanted to move on. But he didn't say anything more than that, really."

"And you and the others just accepted this answer?" inquired Elliot with some skepticism.

"There wasn't anything else we could do. We told him we didn't want him to go, but he just sort of shook it off. Whatever the reason is, it doesn't sound like he wants anyone to know."

Elliot sighed. "Well, we do know a little more now. He's leaving in two weeks. Thanks, Ted."

"No problem. If I find out anything else, I'll let you know. You two aren't the only ones curious about this. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some new hair cream to try out! This brand is sure to work this time," he said as he sauntered off.

"Thanks, Ted," J.D said and he and Elliot both looked at each other. "Now what?"

"I'm not sure. Kelso doesn't know anything, and Ted told us everything he knows. It doesn't sound like there's anyone else we can turn to for this. I mean, he wouldn't even tell his Brain Trust, and who in the world does he care about more than them?" Elliot waited for J.D to say something, anything that might tell her who he thought the Janitor might talk to about something like this, but instead he just looked at her and gave off a slow and steady laugh, which after a few seconds turned into fit that he had trouble stopping on his own. Elliot looked annoyed.

"What? What's so funny?" she shrieked.

"You!"

She wrinkled her nose in confusion and glared at him in disgust. "Me?! What about me is so funny?"

"No, Elliot," J.D said, trying to choke down the rest of his laughter. "That's the answer to your question: Who does the Janitor trust more than his Brain Trust and would be more likely to tell? You, Elliot! He would tell _you_!"

Elliot's eyes widened as she suddenly realized what this response really meant. "No, no, I can't…"

"Elliot, if you really want to know why the Janitor's leaving, you're going to have to ask him yourself. He may not tell you everything, but he'll probably tell you more than he told Ted."

"But J.D-"

"What, Elliot? Just ask him!"

Elliot shook her head fervently. "I don't think that's a good idea."

J.D looked at her with a mixed look of excitement and confusion. "Why not?"

"Because…because I don't know what he might do."

"He's not going to hurt you of all people, Elliot! I mean, yeah, if I were to ask him I would expect to be catapulted off the roof into a nearby dumpster. But he won't do anything like that to you. And you're probably the only one in this place who would be likely to get a straight answer out of him anyway."

Elliot sighed. "You're right. Let's go find him. Where do you think he might be?"

"I'm not sure. I don't even think he's here today, is he?" asked J.D. Elliot shrugged.

"Ok, here's what I think we should do," J.D began. "I know you're not thrilled about doing this. Neither am I, to tell you the truth. So we'll do it together. Since he may not even be here today, how about we wait until one of us bumps into him, and we can just page each other depending on who finds him first. Then we can ask him together."

Elliot nodded in agreement. "Ok, that sounds like a good idea. I've got patients to check up on anyways, so I'll see you later."

"See ya," J.D replied. As he watched Elliot leave, however, he began to think about what Ted had told him. "You two aren't the only ones curious about this." What was everyone else thinking about this news? Did anyone else even care? Would everyone else be as excited about it as he was initially? And how would this affect everyone else? As J.D pondered these questions in his mind, he began to drift off and wish solemnly that whatever the real motivation for the Janitor's departure was, that it wouldn't come back to haunt him later, and that he wouldn't get blamed for this somehow. Everything about the Janitor did seem to get linked back to him, after all…

**Thanks for reading :) I hope you liked chapter two. Please review! Hopefully chapter three will be up soon :) Until then, farewell!**


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